The invention relates to devices for resisting muzzle displacement caused by counterforces produced on a handgun by a bullet as it is fired, which displacements reduce shooting accuracy.
Good target pistol marksmen know that when a large caliber pistol, for example, a .45 caliber pistol is fired, the lands and grooves inside the barrel bore causing the bullet to spin produces a counter reaction torque on the barrel, tending to rotate the handgun counterclockwise along the axis of the barrel. This tends to cause the handgun to "twist" about the handle of the handgun as it is held by the shooter. The backward thrust of the pistol, in combination with the "twist", inevitably causes the outer end of the barrel to be displaced upward and sideways. The amount of such displacement of the barrel occurring before the bullet leaves the barrel is enough to cause appreciable inaccuracy in the aim of even an expert handgun marksman.
The firearm art is replete with a wide variety of gun barrel accessories that have been primarily designed to act as "muzzle brakes" which reduce the recoil produced by firing of the weapon, and in some instances to reduce muzzle climb caused by the recoil and improve the accuracy of the handgun. The state-of-the-art is generally indicated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,858,481 (Elliott), 3,808,943 (Kelly), 3,455,203 (Pillersdorf), 3,208,348 (Lee), 3,155,003 (Ruth), 3,114,289 (Aulabaugh), and 2,499,428 (Tiffany), and also by the article "Mag-Na-Porting the .45 Auto", (French) "Guns & Ammo", January 1976, page 36 et seq., the latter reference describing application of the technique of the above-mentioned Kelly patent to a military Colt .45 automatic handgun.
Although the technique described in the above Kelly patent can be effective in preventing muzzle climb, it does not compensate for the "twist" produced on a handgun as a result of firing a bullet.
There remains a need for a simple, inexpensive compensator that will more effectively counter all of the counterforces produced in reaction to firing of a bullet more effectively than the prior art and eliminate the effects of such counterforces on shooting accuracy of the firearm more effectively than compensators of the prior art.